As the Oklahoma City Thunder traveled back to OKC after beating the Spurs this past Monday, they looked to go 2-0 in front of their home crowd. Unfortunately, the Houston Rockets had other plans.
The Thunder led the game for what seemed to be the majority of the game. However, exiting the third quarter and the entire fourth was all Houston, which led to an overtime win over the Thunder 113-122.
As mentioned before, the star players for the Thunder did their thing. Shai ended the game with 15 points and six assists while shooting perfect from beyond the arch. JDub also put up 15 points and three rebounds, while Chet scored ten points and grabbed six boards.
Off the bench and leading the charge was none other than Aaron Wiggins. Playing 21 minutes, Wiggins scored 13 points on six-of-nine shooting and got three rebounds.
Statistically, the two teams were very close in field goal and three-point percentage. What truly lost the game for OKC was free throw shooting, rebounds, and fouls. The Thunder shot 57% as a team from the charity stripe to Houston's 74%. The Rockets also had nine more boards than the Thunder, 15 of which were offensive. And finally, the Thunder committed 33 personal fouls while the Rockets only had 20.
However, the Thunder played this like a true preseason game as they took out their main guys in the second half and allowed the younger guys to gain experience. For the Rockets, they played their star players much longer, which forced the young guys in a tough position to score and defend.
At the end of the day, it is just preseason and it doesn't affect the regular season; it's just good practice and preparation for the real thing.
Now, the Thunder look to rebound from last game as they head to Tulsa to play at the Bok Center versus the New Zealand Breakers today, Oct. 10, at 7:00 PM CDT and on Bally Sports Oklahoma.
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